The Battle

In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly rejected the works of a 28-year old poet.
Robert Frost persevered.

January 2003~From Journal

Things I've worked on this month:
"Things In Heaven" (short story) gets rewritten and new title: "Finder's Keepers"
Poems sent out to various places.
I'm plugging along on fantasy novel Spell of the Black Unicorn
Wrote and sent out essay to The Writer (this wasn't picked as winner)
Sent out another hint to Family circle
Sent short piece to Writer's Digest
A recipe sent to Midweek is eventually accepted

My mantra is to increase the success rate, you've got to increase the failure rate . . . in other words, send writing out, even if you feel you've got a glacier's chance in a live volcano, do it.

You have to develop an attitude. Or so I've read.

The attitude anyone needs in order to succeed is exactly the mother, the essence. If you lack it, you'll fail every time. It doesn't matter if you can brag that you re-write everything 30,40,50, or 100 times. It isn't only talent which makes a writer. It is not just hard work, either. It's a combination of that, and something even more important than those two things: devotion to your work; a belief in it.

This year I had a plan--to get so many things out there I can't remember it all, and increase my failure rate. I did win, all be it a small victory, but a victory just the same. Understanding that the odds are stacked against me, yet I did what I set out to do: GET PUBLISHED. My first poem was PUBLISHED! After so many rejections. It feels very satisfying, but I want to win more.

SNOWY NIGHT IN ILLINOIS
Drab gray streets turned white,
now shimmer.
Wind aloft rushes with
freight train might.
Cars slosh along up town,
while feathers from angel's wings
mound higher and higher.
Watching my foot-falls crunch and punch
through wet powder,
herringbone patterns follow behind me.
--published in Weeds Corner, Winter issue 2003 Vol. III, No.1